Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

This is a discussion on Traffic and life on the road in Chennai within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; This is very common in all MKV jettas. J or the A always falls down. And VW will ask exorbitant ...

Tuesday was a weird day for me because on way to office in the morning I had 2 dogs attempt suicide in front of my Thar and somehow managed to avoid them. A third dog attempted to cross suddenly in the evening on my way home where I had to brake and have a heart in mouth moment as there was a bus barelling towards me from behind. I was on full alert by then and hoped to make it home safely after that but it wasnt supposed to happen. When stopped in traffic at the Usman road and Mount Road signal a Dezire trying to squeeze through gaps in traffic hit me on my right rear. I had the joy of getting down, checking no damage other than bent number plate and told the guy to have fun fixing the scratch on his front bumper and left.

I was walking on Nelson manickam road some time ago, as I approached Metha nagar intersection I saw an Activa cross the road and drive in the opp direction. He didn't notice the vehicles coming in the right direction & an Apache T-boned him. The impact sent the Apache rider flying & his helmet came off right after he fell. Thankfully, he landed on his arm and a part of his chest. Since he was well built, He survived it & was able to be back on feet and asked us to call the cop from the junction.
Before anyone could get the cop from there, a law & order cop passing by after duty pulled over in his RE and helped him out.

This practice of driving in the opp on Nelson manickam road is very very common and even cars do this when there's less traffic. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Activa guy should be thankful that it was an Apache and not an MTC that hit him.

On tuesday, was having a bad headache, and decided to leave early at 6:00pm from Navalur (near the tollgate) little realizing what was in store. With some difficulty managed to reach taramani. From taramani to cancer hospital intersection was real torture. The vehicle spent more time idling than moving. Once I crossed into kotturpuram, the traffic jam on nungambakkam highroad seemed manageable. Finally by the time I reached shanthi colony it was 9:00pm. I am not sure if this is the scene everyday but day, I have decided never to use this route until 8:00pm . Normally I leave from Navalur at 8:30 and the traffic jams were manageable!!

Leaving early means around 3. Leaving late means 6-7Pm . Jokes apart, you just left a the peak time. No matter what route you take you will be delayed on a normal day let alone a day with traffic or accident.

Your only other option is ECR and taking the beasent negar route through the back side and through kalakshetra colony. But even there you will end up with lots of still traffic.

Leaving early means around 3. Leaving late means 6-7Pm . Jokes apart, you ....
Your only other option is ECR and taking the beasent negar route through the back side and through kalakshetra colony. But even there you will end up with lots of still traffic.

Motorcycle makes it easier many times.

Hmm how I wish those days are back, where you could leave on the dot, and leaving early means at least before the sun sets, etc, etc. Not any more these days!!

I did think of taking the ecr, but when I checked the google maps before I left, it was mostly orange and green, with a little bit of red near Madhya Kailash. I literally understood what that red meant, when I reached Taramani.

Also driving a SX4 through those streets near Kalakshetra is really difficult with all those bikes trying to cut you from all directions.

As for the bike, I take them for a week in a month or 2, but its really terrifying to see the IT buses or the volvo buses on your rear view mirror, and to make it more adventurous you have the barricades to test your skills of handling any vehicle, more so a two wheeler.

On tuesday, was having a bad headache, and decided to leave early at 6:00pm from Navalur (near the tollgate) ........Finally by the time I reached shanthi colony it was 9:00pm.

Shanti Colony to Navalur and back daily ? Phew. Inspite of having done close to this distance (Choolaimedu to Thoraipakkam) for years, after moving closer to work couple years ago, today I find it tough to even imagine driving this distance daily.

Yesterday, had to attend a 7:30PM reception @ Anna Nagar West Extn and was jittery from the morning thinking of the traffic and even contemplated taking the Volvo. Finally decided to drive and to avoid peak traffic decided to leave early from work.

Just that it was too early. Left Thoraipakkam at 4:40PM, was at Lakshman Shruthi junction in just 30mins, where I encountered the first traffic jam/wait, but not bad. In another 20mins was at the destination. Took 50mins for 25kms and stress-free drive. Just that I arrived 2 hours before time and spent time walking around Anna Nagar. :-)

Return drive had a little more traffic (and light drizzle), but still reached Perumbakkam in an hour. Guess I escaped the crazy traffic both ways.

This Tuesday I wanted to avoid the traffic snarl at Nandambakkam due to GIM 2015 held at Chennai Trade Centre and so took the Chennai Bypass from Tambaram to Porur.
I was driving at a steady 60 km/hr on the left most lane and there comes a Black Alto K10 behind me flashing and honking furiously asking me to give way :(

The ride via Chennai Bypass is so stressful these days. No matter how disciplined you are in your lane, few IT blokes, college dude pisses you off with their so called circus stunts.

I find the drive to Ramapuram via GST Road very peaceful though I have to drive in bumper to bumper traffic from Alandur to Jothi theatre!

After seeing Bangalore city traffic during my visit there last month, I can confidently say Chennai road discipline is blocks ahead if not miles. Correct me if I am wrong. Also lots of police presence at junctions helps.

^^^ Oh yeah, as many folks who drive in both cities have posted here, Chennai traffic inspite of all its issues (minor) is still waaaay better than Bangalore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prodigy07

I was driving at a steady 60 km/hr on the left most lane and there comes a Black Alto K10 behind me flashing and honking furiously asking me to give way :(

You should have put on the emergency blinkers, stop and ask him where he expected you to move to given that you are already in the left-most lane ? But then on second thoughts, it is better to ignore and move on for one's own peace of mind.

Shanti Colony to Navalur and back daily ? Phew. Inspite of having done close to this distance (Choolaimedu to Thoraipakkam) for years, after moving closer to work couple years ago, today I find it tough to even imagine driving this distance daily.
.......

Thats close to 33- 35kms one way. I have tried all roads that leads to Navalur. I have tried the Chennai bypass at maduravoyal, which used to take close to 70kms one way. It was ok as long as the time taken is consistent. But now the surface has deteriorated and from perungalthur to vandalur is a nightmare. Then tried taking left at perungalthur, but doesnt justify taking the bypass and then the narrow roads. Then switched to ecr joining omr near Infy. That too has many points where the traffic comes to standstill, and now the barricades. Then tried the pallikaranai - bollineni hillside-omr for some time. Finally what I do now is, in the morning I take the pallikaranai, medavakam, thalambur siruseri and enter office from the back gate. On my return which is normally after 8:00 pm I take the OMR-Kotturpuram - alwarpet - Gemini - Nelson manickam road- AnnaArch.

Very true on the non-peak hour traffic. Occasionally when I used to leave around 2:00 am my return route used to be covered in 40 - 50 mins.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prodigy07

...
I was driving at a steady 60 km/hr on the left most lane and there comes a Black Alto K10 behind me flashing and honking furiously asking me to give way :(

The ride via Chennai Bypass is so stressful these days. No matter how disciplined you are in your lane, few IT blokes, college dude pisses you off with their so called circus stunts.
...

Its really annoying and sad to see these IT guys and others trying to outdo others with their stunts and close calls. And this happens all over the place.
More so with the IT guys because many of them actually want to travel onsite, and either become the most law abiding people or continue their ways. I remember of an incident in UK where one of the guys tried to reach the next platform by getting down to the track(this was somewhere outside London). When he got a earful, he meekly got back onto the platform and reached the other platform the right way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

After seeing Bangalore city traffic during my visit there last month, I can confidently say Chennai road discipline is blocks ahead if not miles. Correct me if I am wrong. Also lots of police presence at junctions helps.

I travel from Nungambakkam to Sholinganallur and the commute distance is around 23 km but time wise takes an hour minimum with no max seen so far. Evening some days it has taken 2 hours and bit more too.
I take Usman road, Anna salai, Velachery high road, Velachery bypass, Tambaram Velachery road and ECR link road.

Have seen SupremeBaleno on the road multiple times when he was travelling from Choolaimedu and when my office was in Perungudi. Others on this route please identify yourselves.

I am logged into the Waze app and share traffic updates if all those on this thread use it it could help others. Please do try and use it. Until more users are there it won't be useful. Am not connected to Waze in any way.

Is it a general rule here that the minute one puts on a left/right indicator, the next biker behind you overtakes from exactly the same side as that indicated? This is the one most consistent thing happening with me here.